Salutations, flatlanders! Your electron based mail message reached my hyper-dimensional lair, I was lured out of the 67th dimension by word of snacks, refreshments, and of course, your attempts to augment your meaty forms with your so called ‘technology.’ The idea: to design artifacts made 50 years in your future. How will they affect the fragile social human construct? More specifically, are these items you’re designing to simplify and enhance your lives creating one step forward in the inevitable march toward a dystopian hellscape? I’d answer these questions, but I’m technically not allowed to break causality.

But I digress, I’m really here to show you all the souls I stole pictures I took with my face. It only took a few years off your lifespan, and there’s a 50/50 chance they were bad years anyway. Thanks for being such good sports!

Hello, mortals! Perhaps you saw me at Maker Faire NY over the weekend; I was the orange dude with the screen head taking your picture with my face. Well not only did your souls add a few thousand years to my already infinitely long lifespan, they got uploaded to the internet, where myself and others can browse them at our leisure from the comfort of our own time traveling spaceships. Have a look yourselves, and I’ll see you all in the past (or in the future, from your puny human perspectives).

This is a weekly open house for Hive 76, where folks drop by to work on software, hardware, or any other DIY projects that may be of interest. The open house gives people a chance to meet the members and to see what kind of projects Hive76 likes to work on. Feel free to bring your own work along and ask questions! No RSVP necessary.

The Point of Care Diagnostics IdeaLab, Tekla Labs, and the Center for Emerging and Neglected Diseases is excited to announce a series of coordinated events to promote global health design and innovation.

January 9, 2014 Diagnostics by Design: A Workshop on the design, development, and implementation of Global Health Technologies (details/registration here)

January 11-12, 2014 Diagnostics by Design: A Hack Day for Global Health (register here)

The Diagnostics by Design workshop is an interdisciplinary forum for discussing the challenges and lessons learned in developing and implementing global health technologies, specifically at the point of care. Through interactive talks, a panel discussion with experts from industry and academia, and a hands-on build session, we will explore the challenges associated with translating technologies beyond the lab. This workshop will draw on the expertise and experience of individuals from across disciplines to explore collaborative solutions to global health issues. The workshop will feature Columbia Professor and mChip inventor Samuel Sia as the keynote speaker. See our eventbrite page for a full list of speakers and panelists and for registration.

The Diagnostics by Design hackathon is an interdisciplinary effort to bridge the gap between makers and do-it-yourself innovators and the sphere of global health. The event is posed as a challenge to participants: with minimal materials or through innovative coding, tackle a technological or informatic need in the space of point-of-care diagnostics. These can range from generating DIY lab equipment alternatives for medical clinics with limited resources, informatics for disease monitoring, or redesign of diagnostic tools for resource-limited settings. Attendees will be given a kit with some materials and have access to 3D printers, laser cutters, mills and more. Visit our eventbrite page for more details and to register.

]]>http://www.hive76.org/diagnostics-by-design-workshop-and-hackathon/feed2Futurescape: Bioprinting New Organshttp://www.hive76.org/futurescape-bioprinting-new-organs
http://www.hive76.org/futurescape-bioprinting-new-organs#commentsWed, 11 Dec 2013 22:08:44 +0000http://www.hive76.org/?p=5409Science Channel did a pretty cool piece on our research using sugar glass for making vascularized engineered tissues last year at Penn (thanks Randy for the sighting). Enjoy.

]]>http://www.hive76.org/futurescape-bioprinting-new-organs/feed0FREE EVENT THIS THURSDAY: Through the Looking Glasshttp://www.hive76.org/free-event-this-thursday-through-the-looking-glass
http://www.hive76.org/free-event-this-thursday-through-the-looking-glass#commentsTue, 04 Jun 2013 18:30:05 +0000http://www.hive76.org/?p=4921This Thursday, please join us at a FREE exhibition of the work of Cornelius Varley (1800-1860) put on by the venerable American Philosophical Society. It is a fantastic exploration of the life work of this fellow tinkerer and inventor who’s insight and explorations reminds me a lot of our Hive76 members!

A few of us will also be presenting at this event! We will have live 3D sugar glass printing, exhibitions of Brendan’s boom cases, Dan’s 8 mm RockBox, PJ’s electronics, Corrie’s textiles and artwork, Chris Terrell’s wood burning, and maybe a few more things.

]]>http://www.hive76.org/free-event-this-thursday-through-the-looking-glass/feed0Philly Tech Week Schedulehttp://www.hive76.org/philly-tech-week-schedule
http://www.hive76.org/philly-tech-week-schedule#commentsTue, 05 Mar 2013 17:18:21 +0000http://www.hive76.org/?p=4711Hey everyone, as you may know, Philly Tech Week is coming up in late April. Hive76, as always likes to make ourselves as available possible during the week, and offer as much as we can. We’ll be open from 5pm-10pm Mon-Thur, and Noon-10pm on Saturday while showing off one unique and interesting aspect of what we do each day.Update: There’s no registration required for these events.

Monday: 3D Printer / OpenSCAD modeling class where we help people model ideas with OpenSCAD and Illustrator, and then allow them to print it on our 3D printer.

Tuesday: Combat Robotics Demo: Duke it out with miniature R/C machines in tabletop matches – it’s Robot Wars on a hand-held scale. Choose one from a field of 1-lb robots designed and built by Hive76 to drive and fight in a display of electro-mechanical fisticuffs. Learn the basics of building and strategy, and get a taste of upcoming combat robot classes offered at Hive76.

Wednesday: Open Hack Night, for anyone who wants to come and build, hack, or program. We’ll also have a Microcontoller session for individuals who want to become more familiar.

Thursday: Music Night: Come talk to our best music hackers and learn how to build effect pedals, make anything into a speaker and learn about amplifiers.

Saturday: Hive76 Ultimate Open House and Expo: Hive76 will have everything from the previous week available for display, and to play with.Also available will be Karaoke, Music, Movies, Food and Refreshments.

]]>http://www.hive76.org/philly-tech-week-schedule/feed5Hive76 responds to what a Hackerspace is, and what it means to Ushttp://www.hive76.org/hive76-responds-to-what-a-hackerspace-is-and-what-it-means-to-us
http://www.hive76.org/hive76-responds-to-what-a-hackerspace-is-and-what-it-means-to-us#commentsTue, 09 Oct 2012 22:37:49 +0000http://www.hive76.org/?p=4012Today, several hive members were contacted by a major Philadelphia news organization, asking if they could interview us about hacking.

Unfortunately, their idea of hacking has more to do with unattended Facebook accounts than the hacking we do, and we thought it might be a good time to clear up just what hive is, what our hackers do, and what hacking actually means within the hacking community.

Hive is a hackerspace. A hackerspace is not full of people who try to break into your computer, steal your bank account info, or send spam. A hackerspace, or at least THIS hackerspace, is full of people who are trying in very real ways to build, modify, and improve things. Our battle cry is “Make things awesome, make awesome things!” and we take this to heart. Visit the space on a Wednesday night, and you’ll find people who are excited about the things they are creating both in and out of the hive space, from chocolate chess pieces, to amazing pieces of audio equipment, all the way to organs which could save someone’s life.

The common theme here is that these people that define themselves as hackers are not breaking into your computer. Some of us write software, to make things work better. Some of us build things, to make things work better. And some of us screw around just to see what might be possible, or impossible, just to do it. Bottom line, this hacking is positive. What most of the public and the media refers to as hacking, the technical world refers to as cracking, and it rarely is it “as seen on TV.”

So lets hit on a few of the real dangers, and if the media is paying attention, they can feel free to make use of this. Here are a few things that actually endanger your accounts and computer, which the media often refers to as hacking, but which really are not.

1.) Spammers like to send emails that look real, talking about your phone bill, your bank, or a deposit that needs to be made in your account. Often these take you to fake sites. Instead of clicking the links in these emails, call the phone company, bank, or other company that claims to be sending the email and verify it that way. It’s not cracking (or hacking) if you hand over your username and password.

2.) If you use the same password on all your sites, and someone gets that password, they now have access to all of your sites. Likewise, if you use a simple password for your email, and someone gets access to that, it is easy for them to request new passwords for many of your other accounts. Use more difficult, hard to guess passwords (Good password guidelines), and don’t use the same password for all sites. At the very least, use a different password for your email, a different one for your taxes and other financial matters, and a different one for your online accounts at sites like Facebook. It’s not cracking if someone knows your password, or has access to your email, and gets access to your stuff.

3.) Don’t leave your account logged on in an unsafe place. Many accounts get taken simply because someone leaves them logged on in some unsafe place, like a sample machine in a mall store. It’s not cracking if you’re already logged on and walk away.

None of this is hacking. None of this is cracking. It’s poor security, usually because of a lack of understanding of the technology. And you know, that’s understandable. Not everyone is a computer expert or even really a computer beginner, but as long as the media keeps pushing these things as hacking, the public won’t learn. If anyone would like to discuss what this means to Hive76, feel free to e-mail us, or leave a comment below.

]]>http://www.hive76.org/hive76-responds-to-what-a-hackerspace-is-and-what-it-means-to-us/feed5Exclusive: Zach Hoeken on leaving MakerBot and his future.http://www.hive76.org/hoeken
http://www.hive76.org/hoeken#commentsMon, 09 Jul 2012 22:42:55 +0000http://www.hive76.org/?p=3774I met Zach Hoeken Smith at one of my first Hive76 events. I donated to the pledge drive to buy a MakerBot Cupcake CNC and extruder. Once the drive was successful and 3DPO built, Hive76 held a workshop to learn how to design and print with SketchUp and the MakerBot. Our instructor was MakerBot co-founder Zach himself. Afterwards, everyone went out to West Philly for some Ethiopian food. It was a nice time. I haven’t seen him since, so I was surprised to hear from fellow member Jordan Miller that Zach had left Makerbot and was living in China. I reached out to Zach for a chat and here’s what I learned about my favorite hardware innovator.

Maker History

Zach via spikenzie on Flickr. CC

Zach has been an active part in the development of the RepRap project for many years. In 2007, he was introduced to the concept of Open Source Hardware (OSHW). OSHW is a growing trend in manufacturing where the designers release all of the files needed to replicate the object once it’s up for sale. This allows customers and supporters to build upon the product, and maybe sometime in the future, provide crowd-sourced support. Once he realized the potential OSHW had to revolutionize manufacturing, he thought, “whoa that’s everything.” Since then everything he has worked on has been released onto the web in some form for others to build upon. One of his most successful OSHW designs was the RepRap Generation 3 electronics that eventually controlled the Mendel and MakerBot’s Cupcake CNC. Zach has been making bootstrapped 3D printers, or RepStraps, starting 5 years ago. He says you can comb through old email threads and see his “total n00b” struggles to get a machine going.

At some point after a few startup failures, he began looking for a few new friends and found them in MB co-founder Bre Pettis and other smart nerds in NYC. They eventually founded the famous hackerspace NYCResistor in Brooklyn. Once they secured a space, Zach brought in his RepStrap stuff to show off and hack on. He also got a RepRap Darwin kit and assembled it at NYCR, but they didn’t function too well. After some successive failures, and fortuitous access to a laser cutter, Zach, Bre and the third co-founder Adam had an idea to make their own RepStrap kit. There are others that have done the history of MB, and none better than Bre himself. MakerBot is now one of the most successful 3D printer companies around today, but for Zach, it “didn’t end on a good note.”

Chinese Vacation

Zach moved to China about a year ago, I assume to help MakerBot’s supply chain. But these days, Zach spends more time running up mountains than running a supply chain. After his break with MakerBot in May, he has been traveling around, exercising and eating well. Zach he got the inspiration for this creative reboot from Bunnie Huang:

“The coolest piece of hardware you’ll ever own is your body, and if that’s not working well, there’s no hope for anything else. Once I’m done with my aimless wanderings, hopefully I’ll have a better idea of what’s next.”
via MAKE magazine

If he is not feeling the best physically, he won’t be the best mentally for his next big thing. Zach is on a much needed vacation in order to explore a bit and play around with old ideas left on hold. One old project he wants to pick back up are the Keyboard pants. “The world needs keyboard pants” he says.

Falling Out

The story of how Zach left is one that has been told a millions times. It came down to a basic struggle for who’s running the company. In his words, he “got pushed out.” Unfortunately, this happens to a lot of founders. Bill Gates and Larry Ellison are exceptions while the vast majority of founders routinely get displaced. From Inc.com:

“Robert Adelson, a partner at the Boston-based Engel & Schultz law firm who represents entrepreneurs in this situation, says founder succession happens most often when the venture capitalist—who has most likely invested with the company under the stipulation that he or she can remove the founder if necessary—feels the company needs to scale faster.” via Inc.

Zach is quiet on the details, but it could be this push to scale big or the style of development at MB that made the divide. Makerbot has a history of developing new products in secret. The Thing-O-Matic and Replicator were complete surprises to the printing community when they debuted. This is odd behavior in a community that is so accustomed to sharing every tiny development. Whatever MakerBot is working on new will be a surprise too. Zach found this closed development frustrating, when after working on a project for a year and not sharing any details, MB would release it, get some feedback, and Zach would go back into the lab to toil away for another year.

MakerBot also just raised $10M in VC funding and that amount of money changes the work dynamic. The people with the money call the shots. Like I said, Zach did not divulge any details so we can only speculate that this was one of the divisions that led him to leave. When I asked him what different direction he wanted to go in, he couldn’t say, but recalling his parting, Zach said “I thought I was going to be working there for the rest of my life.”

Bright Future in China

Zach’s home for now is Shenzhen, a place he calls a maker paradise. He says it’s incredible living in a different country, especially one that has rapidly industrialized. Shenzhen has grown from nothing to 10 million people in 30 years, and the best part is, they are almost all focused on manufacturing.

The ingredients for anything you want to make come from China, and they are sold by the bucket in SEG electronics market. This building has stalls with suppliers for any component you can think of. There’s even a dedicated LED building. Even though you can get anything you want, there is language barrier to overcome, so Zach is learning mandarin. In the meantime, he has a trick. After all, part numbers are part numbers, so he researches on Digi-Key, finds a few compatible components, then asks around around in the market for parts.

So what’s next for Zach? He’s got a “bajillion ideas” and Shenzhen is place to make them. He describes how amazing it is when you can look up an Alibaba supplier and then go visit them in person. Whatever project he starts next, he wants to be active during development. During his RepRap and early MakerBot years, the process of blogging, getting feedback, and directly engaging the user base was really exciting for him. But is it possible to do product development even more open than it was at MakerBot? Can he go beyond simply publishing a data dump of source code and actually collaborate with the people who will use the design?

When discussing his love of 3D printing, Zach made a comparison to compilers, critical pieces of software design. Well, “3D printers are the compilers of the hardware age.” They actually make the things you think up. But he doesn’t want to stop at plastic parts, which are OK for fancy shapes and toys, he has been eying up the world of CNC mills. When you use a mill and make a part out of metal, you get a high precision part for the small investment of materials, design, and robot time. The possibility of making a useful object is much higher when using a CNC mill.

Also, he has shed some light on the purpose of the RepRap project itself. RepRaps are biological entities in the eyes of RepRap founder Adrian Boyer, and they are designed to show that with terms like “vitamins” and “self-replicating.” But it’s hard to cram all that self-replication into one machine. You’ll never be able to extrude the metal parts of an extruder. Even making electronics on a RepRap is still tricky.

Keyboard pants via brucesflickr on flickr. CC

But a new way of thinking about biological machines is to consider the whole lab as self replicating, and the machines as organs, born out of specialization. Each machine could make some part to reproduce another machine. Having a full lab of open source hardware machines is fundamental to the future of makers. Once Zach is refreshed from his well-deserved vacation, maybe we’ll see a new line of maker-friendly CNC mills, all controlled by keyboard pants.